This invention relates to a machine and a method for making and dispensing products generically defined as liquid or semi-liquid, in particular of the ice cream sector.
More specifically, by way of non-limiting example, reference is made in this description to machines for making and dispensing ice cream.
In machines of this kind, the part which constitutes the core of the machine is a cylinder known in the trade as batch freezing cylinder.
In effect, this part is in the form of a metal cylinder having cooling means distributed around the outside of (or within) its sidewalls and designed to reduce the temperature inside the cylinder in order to mix and cool a base product contained therein to make the finished product (ice cream).
Inside the cylinder, the machine is equipped with a power-driven stirrer which not only mixes the base product continuously to make the finished ice cream as smooth as possible but, at the same time, also causes the finished ice cream to advance towards a dispensing nozzle.
One particular need felt by operators in the trade is that of being able to make flavored ice cream products.
Up to the present, operators in the trade add flavoring preparations to the product inside the batch freezing cylinder so it is stirred into the product while the batch freezer is in operation: this solution, however, is not possible with certain kinds of natural flavorings (e.g. vanilla pods, tea leaves), in particular, infusion products: flavorings of this kind would leave unwanted residues in the finished product which the end consumer would find unpalatable.